Oscars 2026: Portugal Stayed Up Late for a Night of Historic Firsts

Portugal woke up Monday morning to Oscar results after a ceremony that ran deep into the Lisbon night. Broadcast live on RTP1 from 11 p.m., the 98th Academy Awards delivered a slate of surprises, historic firsts, and a dominant performance by one film that few had predicted would sweep the evening.

The Big Winner

"One Battle After Another," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, claimed six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing, and the inaugural Best Casting award for Cassandra Kulukundis. The film's sweep was the most commanding since the early 2000s, and Anderson's win adds a Best Director trophy to a career that has long been considered among the finest of his generation.

The Best Casting category, awarded for the first time in Academy history, added a layer of significance to the evening. Kulukundis's win recognized a craft that has operated in the industry's shadows for decades, and the category's introduction was one of several signs that the Academy continues to evolve its definition of cinematic achievement.

The Acting Honors

Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for "Sinners," Ryan Coogler's genre-bending film that also took home Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography. Jordan's win caps a remarkable career arc from "Fruitvale Station" through the "Creed" and "Black Panther" franchises to what critics have called his most complete dramatic performance.

Jessie Buckley claimed Best Actress for "Hamnet," Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel about Shakespeare's lost son. The Irish actress, who has steadily built one of the most respected careers in contemporary cinema, delivered a performance that reviewers described as quietly devastating.

In the supporting categories, Amy Madigan won for "Weapons" and Sean Penn added to the evening's narrative with his win for "One Battle After Another" -- his third career Oscar and a reminder of his enduring presence in American cinema.

A Portuguese Footnote

Sharp-eyed viewers in Portugal may have noticed a familiar connection in the nominations. Gabriel Domingues, a casting director with Portuguese roots, was nominated in the new Best Casting category for "The Secret Agent," which also competed for Best International Feature Film. While the award went to Kulukundis, the nomination placed a Portuguese name on the Oscar ballot -- a small but symbolically resonant moment for the country's film industry.

Wagner Moura, the Brazilian-born actor beloved across the lusophone world for his portrayal of Pablo Escobar in "Narcos," earned a Best Actor nomination for his role in "The Secret Agent." Though the award went to Jordan, Moura's nomination was widely celebrated in Portuguese-speaking countries as recognition of the growing international reach of lusophone talent.

What Portuguese Audiences Are Talking About

The cultural conversation in Portugal on Monday has centered less on individual wins and more on the ceremony's broader themes. The dominance of original and ambitious filmmaking -- Anderson's period epic, Coogler's genre experiment, Zhao's literary adaptation -- resonated with a Portuguese audience that has its own tradition of auteur cinema, from Manoel de Oliveira to the contemporary work of Miguel Gomes.

The international feature category, won by Norwegian-directed "Sentimental Value," also drew attention. European cinema's strong showing -- with nominations from Iran, Denmark, and Spain alongside the Norwegian winner -- reinforced a narrative that Hollywood's awards apparatus is increasingly open to global storytelling.

For the many film enthusiasts among Portugal's expat communities, the Oscars serve as an annual cultural touchstone that bridges their old and new homes. Monday morning's conversations in Lisbon cafes and Porto co-working spaces were, for a few hours at least, about art rather than politics -- a rare and welcome reprieve.